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The man who turned Dave Chappelle into a comedy G.O.A.T

When Dave Chappelle was announced the 22nd recipient of The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the most prestigious honour in comedy, everyone who is anyone was in attendance.

Tony Woods

We are talking comedians like Jon Stewart, Tiffany Haddish, and Sarah Silverman who were all on hand to give a handclap to the new king of comedy.

Chappelle’s coronation was only possible, he confessed, because of the people who made him the comedian he became.

Namely, his mother who took him to comedy clubs when he was 14 years old and then a certain Tony Woods, the man who mentored Chappelle.

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When getting his award, Chappelle spoke directly to Woods: “I was trying to play like you,” he said, “You were the first person I ever saw do it absolutely right.”

Tony Woods, the grandmaster of Washington comedy, is possibly one of the best and most underrated comedians in America.

He never achieved the so-called comedy trifecta: television, movies and standup.

Well, he achieved only a third of the trifecta by becoming a brilliant standup comedian.

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Woods, the fedora-wearing comedian, who is in his 50s, is as laidback as Dave Chappelle.

He takes it easy, keeps his style as low-key style as an envelope, working his way through a story to the crescendo of a punch line while using the word “man” a lot.

Chappelle imitated Woods to such an extent that in August 2021, the standup Hampton Yount joked on Twitter: “Dave Chappelle always does a fake run off the stage after a joke, not because it’s good but because he sees the ghost of Tony Woods' career every time.

Over the years, however, Chappelle has far outpaced his mentor Woods and, many would argue, his inspiration Eddie Murphy.

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He not only mentored him but he also drove Chappelle home from shows and coached him on how he could find his own voice and avoid becoming a replica of Murphy.

At the time, every black comedian was copying Murphy’s fast-talking flow, especially on Def Comedy Jam in the 90s.

Instead of running his mouth like Murphy, Woods taught Chappelle to slow it down and adopt a fresh laid-back, meditative style.

Chappelle then became a cool mellow fellow with a conversational style, far removed from oral explosiveness of a Chris Rock.

Woods was always the most relaxed man in the room, and now Chappelle is.

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He taught Chappelle to turn standup into the art of conversation and not just a series of jokes and punchlines.

Thanks to Woods, Chappelle can claim to be the G.O.A.T. but his skills were herded to the top of the game by Tony Woods.

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